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Sunday, May 29, 2011

Mommy Maestra Celebrates Its First Anniversary {GIVEAWAY}

Two years ago, I became a homeschooling parent. For reasons I have already mentioned, this was our best choice at the time. (And it still is.) When I first began, I knew that I had three main goals: To give my daughter the best education I could, to help her complete development (academic, social, and emotional), and to somehow pass on my love for nuestra cultura.

When I began homeschooling, I began looking for resources for Latino parents who are educating their kids at home. I couldn't find many. While there were a few blogs here and there written by Latina moms who were homeschooling, they were mostly about their family's daily routine. I love these blogs. But I want(ed) more.

So I began looking for sites in general that promoted parental involvement in Latino education. Again, I hit a blank wall. I desperately wanted to find some sort of support system, a community, of other Latinas who were in my position. I wanted to find ideas for developing our cultural identity in the classroom. But it wasn't there.

I found a lot of English-only homeschooling blogs that have been super. But rarely do they post about raising bilingual/bicultural children.

So finally, at the urging of mis amigas, I decided that someone had to share all the resources that I was digging up. And I knew there had to be other moms like me out there, feeling the exact same way.

And so last year, on June 1st, I started Mommy Maestra.

Estoy emocionada escribiendo este artículo. Because what a ride it has been! It has been such a pleasure to discover all of you dear readers. And what a surprise it was to discover that while some of you are homeschooling mamis, so many of you are parents with children in a traditional school setting who want to be more involved and help support your child's education. In addition, there are a large number of bilingual ed teachers following, too. I am thrilled.

I have learned so much and found so many resources. Some of them I can use, and some I can't, but I try to pass them all on to you so that each one of you will maybe find something useful to enrich your student's/child's education.

So this week I'm celebrating. And as a giant GRACIAS to all of you, I have a week of educational giveaways planned. I hope that I have a little something that will appeal to everyone.

THE GIVEAWAY

The first giveaway is a totally awesome collection of multilingual preschool learning programs. Created by Brighter Child, each set features Caillou and comes with a color workbook and a CD-ROM. The three sets are: Colors & Shapes, Alphabet, and Counting. The best part? They are multilingual! The workbooks are written in English and French, and the exercises on the CD-ROM can be played in English, French, or Spanish. They also include the voices of some of the Caillou characters.

We are loyal PBS fans in this casa. And when my children were younger, they loved Caillou. (Actually, the youngest one still does.) So this is a popular item in my house. Even though my son has learned these subjects in preschool, I will use these workbooks as a review before we begin Kindergarten.

One lucky reader will win all three sets.

To enter, simply leave a comment below.

The deadline to enter is 11:59 EST, Sunday, June5th. The winner will be chosen using Random.org. and contacted via email - so be sure to leave a valid email address in your comment!

Well, I certainly understand where you are coming from. I have found difficulty finding fun, interesting and educational blogs in Spanish and Italian, and I am grateful to have come across yours. I found you over at A Bilingual Baby. So glad I decided to stop by. I guess I cannot participate in the giveaway as I live in Italy, but I did do the survey anyway. Thank you for sharing what you are leaning with the rest of us... for sharing the joy of family and learning together... Blessings to you and your family... I blogged about you as well and linked you at http://tonguetriedbilinguist.blogspot.com/2011/06/caillou-cd-rom-and-workbook-giveaway.html